1990: "Ritual Room", Skin Yard

As if to emphasize the extent to which the metallic, Stooges-meet-Sabbath vibe dominated the Pac NW scene prior to Nirvana's mainstream breakthrough, consider Skin Yard. One of the oldest Seattle bands peddling what would later be called grunge, Skin Yard formed in 1985 and by 1986 had already released their first album on C/Z Records (the label that issued the seminal proto-grunge comp Deep Six in March of 1986 and arguably the first full blown grunge label period).

Apologies in advance for the shoddy recording quality of this clip, but Skin Yard just never got enough love to warrant preservation of their performances, apparently. I wanted this song in particular since it has that perfect mix of Mudhoney's screeching vocal mannerisms and Tad's bottom heavy Sabbath worship.

After releasing 1990's Fist Sized Chunks - from which "Ritual Room" is taken - Skin Yard stuck around until 1993, releasing two more poor selling records before finally conceding to lack of interest in the shadows of their peers.